It seems as though monster movies have been making a comeback lately. The release of ‘Kong: Skull Island’ earlier this year, which has made an estimated $565 million worldwide, has been following the recent trend of giant monster movies that have been growing in popularity in the last several years.
Films such as the 2014 reboot of ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ have proven how popular the monster movie genre has become with each movie grossing roughly half a billion dollars. So it's not surprising that both Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. have decided to combine their respective properties in order to bring together two of cinema's greatest monsters, Godzilla and King Kong.
The film is titled ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ and yesterday both studios announced they have closed a deal with director Adam Wingard to helm the film.
About the Director
Wingard has made a name for himself in Hollywood for making successful low-budget horror movies and has become a director many studios want to work with. His most famous films include the horror films ‘You’re Next’ and ‘The Guest' which have both developed quite a cult following. He’s also famous for directing segments in the horror anthology film series ‘V/H/S’.
His most recent works include the reboot to the ‘Blair Witch’ series which came out last year, and the Netflix film adaptation of the wildly popular Japanese Manga series ‘Death Note’.
Not to mention that Wingard’s name has also been thrown into the mix for Sony’s upcoming comic book film ‘Venom’. Wingard is said to be a huge creature-feature fan and essentially grew up watching the original Godzilla and King Kong movies, and is ecstatic to get a chance to continue these two monstrous franchises.
About the Film
With ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ scheduled to be released May 22, 2020, both Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. have begun working on the early stages of the film. In March, Legendary Entertainment set up a writer’s room to work on the script for the film which included several big names. There names are writers such as Terry Rossio who co-wrote the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean' movies, writing team J.D.
Payne and Patrick McKay who contributed to the script for ‘Star Trek Beyond,’ T.S. Nowlin who wrote the ‘Maze Runner’ films, Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, Jack Paglen, and J. Michael Straczynski.
While the official plot of the film has yet to be released, I think it’s safe to assume that Godzilla and King Kong will be fighting at some point in the movie. Even for those not particularly fond of creature-features, it’s hard not to at least be intrigued by this premise.
